Mindful of the goals of Mayor Thoma s
Menino’s Food Initiative, the tea m aimed
at piloting financia lly successf ul models
in Ja ma ica Plain a nd Greater Boston. Under
the instruction of Abdul Medallah, BAC
Director of Assessment a nd Resea rch,
Practice Department, the students worked
to design urban agricultural models that
capitalized on limited resources in several
of Boston’s more v ulnerable neighborhoods.
Rather than working to design to the specific
re-zoned urban farm sites that were created
by the Department of Neighborhood
Development to develop urba n farming
on city owned properties, the te am instead
worked closely with DND to design urban
a gricultural models that adhered to and
c apita lized on available re source s in Boston’s
urban conditions.
In con sideration of the drop- out rates
of high school students, the tea m set out
to develop an adult and youth educ ation
program within the community to address
food production in an urban environment
a nd to provide me aningful employment
in the local agricultural industry. Due to
the dual nature of this project’s scope, the
team targeted surrounding secondary and
post-secondary educational institutions,
local food e stablishments, food distribution
c enters a nd community members. Working
c losely with neighborhood school s, the
project aimed to establish a n e xtensive
c urriculum that focused on the importance
of local food security, as well as to provide
fundamenta l training towards the initiation
a nd maintena nc e of urban farm operations.
The framework of the Urban Agricultural
Model, constructs urban farm networks that
target multiple distressed or abandoned
properties within a 2 mile radius of an
education al institution. The te am’s model
su ggest s a flexible struct ure open for public
interpretation to grow nutritional food
sy stems, develop educ ational and training
protoc ols, a nd fina lly adapt and reinvigorate
farm s ba sed on available farming techniques.
The team: Ma ster of Architect ure students
Kate Bickford and Alex Ho, Bachelor of
Architecture student Jasmine Wolber, a nd
Master of Interior Design student Pei-Chi
Liao presented their final Urban Agricultural
Models proposal in May of 2010 to DND,
and since that time DND tailored three
Reque sts for Proposal s to de velop Urba n
Farms in South Boston.
Urban Agriculture Models
Urban Agriculture site After
Urban Agriculture Program Axon
PRACTICE
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FEATURE ] GATEWAY INITIATIVE